Mercedes Has A Tumor In Her Toe - Update Post 13

[Guest dwolfe711]

Mercedes toe puffed up about two weeks ago - we took her to the vet and decided to treat with antibiotics for a week and gave her Deramax for a few days thinking she had been stung or bitten by something. The toe did not go down in a week although off the meds it did not seem to be hurting her. We took her back to the vet on Tuesday for x-rays. There is definitely a tumor - they took several aspirations and the vet's tech could not definitely identify the abnormal cells so they sent them out to a lab and we are waiting their results. Although our vet expected to see the bone involved with osteo, the bone appeared clear. Regardless of that report, the toe will be amputated next week. Does anyone have any experience with a toe amp? It is the toe next to the little toe on her rear left leg - it is about three or four times its size - we put her back on Deramax because she was limping yesterday and yelped a few times when moving about. She's only been with us since March and will celebrate her 10th birthday in a few weeks on July 28 - we are praying this is localized and nothing aggressive. We'll consider post-amp treatment after we know what kind of cancer (if any) we're dealing with. Please keep our sweet girl in your prayers. Thanks.

Edited July 12, 2010 by dwolfe711

[CaliforniaGreys]

Many prayers coming from here!

[MandysMom]

No advice, just good thoughts for Mercedes.

[Guest KennelMom]

We've owned a couple missing-toe dogs that came to us that way. We went through one toe amputation with Melody. Once they're recovered, life is pretty much normal for them. The surgery for Mel was uneventful and the healing process went smoothly. Like most surgeries...keep them calm and keep the surgery site clean and dry. Leash walk, obviously. Here's a blog post I wrote with some before/after surgery pics. http://worldofgrey.com/?p=952

 

This is how she came home from the hospital. She wore the bag for 48 hours:

 

Sending prayers for your girl

Edited July 9, 2010 by KennelMom

[Guest MZH]

I knew a dog with two toes amputated on the same foot because each toe had a different kind of cancer! He did amazingly well and just passed at 13.5. We have one now that came with a missing toe just last year. No idea why it's gone either! He's 5.

[kjw]

Romi had his toe off last year due to cancer, and did not need any chemo or radiation afterwards. Hopefully Mercedes has the same type - it does not often metastasize, and if it does it goes to another toe, so there are worse things!

 

Romi was better right away after the surgery, and I would never hesitate to do the same to any greyhound having toe troubles - they do very well afterwards. Just make sure they take the whole toe, and don't leave a flap or a joint, the whole thing needs to come off for a problem free recovery.

 

Scritches to your girlie.

[Guest greytfulhounds]

My Danny just had the same toe on his right, rear leg amputated in March. He is doing really well! Right after surgery, I set up an x-pen in front of one of our sofas....called it his man cave.....covered the sofa with a spread, put a second bed & toys on the floor....put water down & fed him in there too. I covered his bandage with newspaper bags & leashed walked him for quite a while. What you are describing almost sounds like what Danny had....the biopsy came back as a benign bone eroding cancer......was called Subungual Keratoacanthoma. A rare, benign cancer that affects the toes & the treatment is amputation. Hope that your baby gets good news!

 

Edited to add: I agree with making sure they take the whole toe. My vet did as she said that leaving part of the toe sometimes causes problems with the toe breaking open from the weight of the leg.

Edited July 9, 2010 by greytfulhounds

[greysmom]

Dude broke his toe - the right rear, second toe in - and it was not repairable, so it had to come off. The amp was easy and the site healed fine in two weeks. He doesn't even know it's gone and it makes no difference in his playing, running, bouncing, walking, digging or anything else. His foot did change shape to accomodate the lost toe.

 

Our problem was that he developed a bad skin infection and several to-the-bone sores from the hard splint that was put on after the surgery. If I'd done what I wanted and taken it off after 8 days instead of 14 he would have been fine. As it was he had six more week of weekly bandage changes and antibiotics.

 

ETA - make sure the vet takes off all the toe back to the foot so there's no toe bone left sticking sticking out. Many dogs experience complications with that tag end of bone, and they really don't need it.

Edited July 9, 2010 by greysmom

[Guest Smiley]

I'm so sorry you are going through this. We had to amp Smiley's toe last Oct. after a tumor scare that turned out to be a severe infection. We had a few issues with popped stitches so my very best advice would be to keep your girl on leash for a good long month. Give that suture a good amount of time to heal. I'll be keeping your girl in my thoughts that all will be well very soon!

[Hubcitypam]

Buck had a mast cell tumor on his toe. They got it with clean margins we never mentioned ampituation and it never bothered him again.

[Ruth]

Our Tess had 2 toes removed due to tumors. Hers completely surrounded the bone. They were benign and she recovered very quick.

It never bothered her a bit and hasn't slowed her down at all. She will be 11 in Sept. and I believe it was about 3 or 4 years ago

now. She is doing greyt and no problems.

 

Ruth in Idaho

Edited July 10, 2010 by Ruth

[Guest abbysmom]

I've had two who had toe amputations--both on front paws. Abby's was amputated because of repeated dislocations. The amputation went well, healed well and she had no problems without the toe. Mocha's was amputated because of squamous cell carcinoma of the nail bed. She had problems with popping sutures and she had to go back for more surgery (but that was really common with her surgeries--happened with a hernia repair and with corn surgeries; she had tissue-thin skin). I lost her to something TOTALLY different during the recovery process. At the time that we had her toe off, my vet told me that there are a number of "weird" cancers that she's seen in toes, and that are generally taken care of with amputation. My only advice would be to limit activity--watch stairs and jumping on furniture. I carried Mocha around a lot. Good luck!

Edited July 10, 2010 by abbysmom

[Guest dwolfe711]

Mercedes toe amp will be on friday - lab results from the aspirations were inclusive - they couldn't identify the cells - but the toe must come off regardless - it will be sent for further testing after the surgery. Thanks for all the useful info and good thoughts for our girl - prayers would be appreciated on Friday.

[CaliforniaGreys]

Mercedes toe amp will be on friday - lab results from the aspirations were inclusive - they couldn't identify the cells - but the toe must come off regardless - it will be sent for further testing after the surgery. Thanks for all the useful info and good thoughts for our girl - prayers would be appreciated on Friday.

 

 

Many prayers from here!

[Guest Energy11]

Lots of good thoughts and prayers for your Mercedes coming from here as well!